- Jerusalem: US ambassador, former Israeli spy held secret meeting
Source: Jerusalem Post [Jerusalem]
“Convicted Israeli-American spy Jonathan Pollard said that his meeting with US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee at the American Embassy in Jerusalem was a ‘personal’ conversation to express gratitude, not a political exchange, in a phone conversation with The Jerusalem Post on Thursday. ‘The meeting, simply put, was a personal affair. That’s it,’ he said. ‘The reason I wanted to meet him was to express my deep and sincere appreciation for everything he had done to help me when I was in prison.’ According to Pollard, the meeting was ‘misinterpreted’ and used by certain figures, both within the US Embassy and the Trump administration, to try to remove Huckabee.” (11/20/25)
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/politics-and-diplomacy/article-874623
- Bulgaria: 35 Arrested for Large-Scale Trafficking of Cultural Goods
Source: US News & World Report
“Bulgaria has arrested 35 people linked to a criminal network involved in large-scale trafficking of cultural goods across Europe, BTA news agency reported on Thursday, quoting the head of the country’s anti-organised crime unit. … international raids were carried out on Thursday, led by Bulgaria and coordinated with the Europol and Eurojust agencies, during which cars, safes and other items were seized. The criminal network had been operating for over 16 years in Western Europe, the Balkans, the United States and elsewhere, Sofia Deputy City Prosecutor Angel Kanev told the media briefing.” (11/20/25)
- Quiet, Piggy: Reporters Aren’t Trump’s Subordinates
Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp“What does it mean to be ‘insubordinate?’ Put simply, insubordination entails a person who’s lower on some ladder of authority defying the orders of someone who’s higher on that ladder. Trump clearly believes in the existence of such a ladder, upon which he enjoys higher ranking than, and authority over, mere mortals. Especially journalists. And most especially female journalists. … In reality, Trump’s only subordinates (with respect to his position as president of the United States) are employees of the federal government’s executive branch. Literally everyone else in the country is either his equal or his superior.” (11/20/25)
- The UK and Canada Lead the West’s Descent into Digital Authoritarianism
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Sonia Elijah“‘Big Brother is watching you.’ These chilling words from George Orwell’s dystopian masterpiece, 1984, no longer read as fiction but are becoming a bleak reality in the UK and Canada — where digital dystopian measures are unravelling the fabric of freedom in two of the West’s oldest democracies. Under the guise of safety and innovation, the UK and Canada are deploying invasive tools that undermine privacy, stifle free expression, and foster a culture of self-censorship. Both nations are exporting their digital control frameworks through the Five Eyes alliance, a covert intelligence-sharing network uniting the UK, Canada, US, Australia, and New Zealand, established during the Cold War.” (11/20/25)
- Limited government: Myth or future fact?
Source: The Price of Liberty
by Nathan Barton“There were multiple times in history when men have attempted to create and sustain limited government. This is little more than tolerating something that is inherently intolerable. Many ways have been sought and tried to limit the power of government, to prevent the rise of the all-powerful state. However, humans are perversely ingenious and are inventive when it comes to enslaving their fellows. And in convincing the slaves that they are still free. … We propose that until and unless we change matters drastically, there is NO limited government in the future of the Fifty States. It is a myth that limited government exists now, and we will continue to see more and more power, more and more control, in the hands of monsters in human form.” (11/20/25)
https://thepriceofliberty.org/2025/11/19/limited-government-myth-or-future-fact/
- Why the Anti-Promethean Backlash?
Source: Virginia’s Newsletter
by Virginia Postrel“Roots of Progress Institute founder Jason Crawford recently hosted me at an Interintellect salon. Our topic was the relation between glamour and progress, inspired by my Works in Progress article. At one point Jason asked a provocative question: Why did the anti-Promethean backlash happen when it did? Earlier periods of technological and economic progress, he noted, had produced demands for more progress, not less. What was different about America circa 1970? In the WiP article, I point to a combination of complacency among those who’d grown up amid postwar plenty and dissatisfaction with technocratic overreach. But why the complacency? Why not a demand for even more? My article didn’t consider that question.” (11/20/25)
https://vpostrel.substack.com/p/why-the-anti-promethean-backlash
- To Make Luxury Affordable, Embrace Consumer Choice
Source: The Daily Economy
by Mani Basharzad“What kind of goods and experiences comprise a ‘normal life?’ In 1900, Henry George thought millionaires lived abnormally because they had telephones in their bedrooms. Looking back, it’s remarkable how quickly the abnormal becomes ordinary. Today, even the poorest people — not only in rich countries but also in developing ones — carry a phone (which does much more than ring) in their pocket. That’s one of the miracles of the free market. French sociologist Gabriel Tarde noticed that forks and spoons were once luxuries reserved for the elite, but by his time had become universal. Ludwig von Mises drew inspiration from Tarde’s insight, calling it one of capitalism’s greatest virtues: the transformation of luxuries into necessities.” (11/20/25)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/embrace-consumer-choice/
- Trump’s Most Original Idea Ever: An Unexpected Con to End Free Speech
Source: TomDispatch
by Mattea Kramer“Rooting out terrorism and antisemitism was the supposed reason that plainclothed ICE agents arrested doctoral student Rümeysa Öztürk on a street in Somerville, Massachusetts, after she coauthored an op-ed calling on Tufts University to divest from companies with ties to Israel due to the killing and starvation of Palestinian civilians. There is an international movement to boycott, sanction, and divest from Israel, but in the United States, President Donald Trump is imperiling the freedom even to publicly discuss such ideas, which should, in effect, be considered a test case for his larger attack on free speech. So far, the test is going well for Trump. In what seems a long time ago, in 2024, the Heritage Foundation, a right-wing think tank, released a blueprint for what it called ‘a national strategy to combat antisemitism’ by addressing what it described as ‘America’s virulently anti-Israel, anti-Zionist, and anti-American pro-Palestinian movement’.” (11/20/25)
https://tomdispatch.com/an-unexpected-con-to-end-free-speech/
- There Is No Such Thing as Good Industrial Policy. But Republicans And Democrats Keep Trying.
Source: Reason
by Veronique de Rugy“American industry has been getting a lot of hands-on direction from Democrats and Republicans for quite some time now. Every few years, someone looks at the underwhelming results of this economic maneuvering and insists that real ‘industrial policy’ has never been tried. The truth is that the left’s call for a ‘mission-oriented’ state and the right’s yearning for a nationalist industrial revival may sound different, but they share the same conceit: that their own intentions can finally succeed where decades of intervention have failed.” (11/20/25)
- The People of Ecuador Are Right: US Force Won’t Stop Narco-Traffickers
Source: Foreign Policy In Focus
by John Feffer“Ecuador, once one of the most peaceful countries in Latin America, is now one of its most dangerous. The murder rate in 2020 was 7.7 homicides per 100,000 people. That was roughly comparable to the United States where it was 6.4 that year. In nearby Brazil, on the other hand, it was 22.3. By 2023, Ecuador’s homicide rate had leapfrogged over its neighbors to an astounding 46 per 100,000. In a mere three years, the number of murders had increased six-fold. The reason: narco-traffickers. Ecuador had become a convenient transshipment hub, and various gangs were warring over territory, particularly in coastal cities. In 2023, in a presidential election that featured the assassination of one of the candidates, Ecuadorians voted in Daniel Noboa, an undistinguished but telegenic conservative politician who promised an iron-fist approach to fighting drug kingpins. His tactics boiled down to unleashing the military to attack specific gangs.” (11/20/25)
https://fpif.org/us-military-is-no-answer-to-narcotraffickers/
- Broaden the base, lower the (improper payment) rates
Source: Niskanen Center
by Will Raderman“After years of deliberation, a bipartisan consensus is coalescing on the need for Congress to help states protect their Unemployment Insurance (UI) programs against improper payments and outright fraud, which cost the federal government, states, and taxpayers an estimated $135 billion during the COVID-19 pandemic alone. … An effective reform package would focus on fixing how UI administration is funded and establish new program guardrails. Congress can ensure that state UI agencies make use of more federal revenue raised specifically for program administration while offsetting past administrative funding lost to inflation.” (11/20/25)
https://www.niskanencenter.org/broaden-the-base-lower-the-improper-payment-rates
- Tradwives Are Feminists, Too
Source: Reason
“radwives are fighting the cultural stigma that still remains around being a homemaker. That makes them damn good feminists.” (11/20/25)
- Rising, 11/20/25
Source: The Hill
“Crocket called out for connecting Lee Zeldin, GOP to wrong Jeffrey Epstein.” (11/20/25)
https://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/5614747-rising-november-20-2025/
- The Daily, 11/20/25
Source: New York Times
“Is There an A.I. Bubble? And What if It Pops?” (11/20/25)